“The Band’s Visit,” a musical about an Egyptian police band’s accidental visit to an Israeli desert town, took 10 awards home from the 72nd Tony Awards for live Broadway theater, held on June 10 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The play was named best musical and also won awards in the musical category for best direction (David Cromer), lead actor (Tony Shalhoub), lead actress (Katrina Lenk), book (Itamar Moses), orchestration, sound design, original score (David Yazbek), lighting and featured actor (Ari’el Stachel).

“The Band’s Visit,” which opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on November 9, 2017, was based on the 2007 Israeli movie “Bikur Ha-Tizmoret” written and directed by Eran Kolirin.

The Israeli company GalaPro provided an app that enabled Tony audience members with visual or hearing impairments to enjoy the show without human interpreters.

In his acceptance speech, Stachel spoke about growing up as the son of an Israeli-Yemenite father and Ashkenazi New York mother. He thanked the creators of the show “for being courageous for telling a small story about Arabs and Israelis getting along at a time that we need that more than ever.”

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Israel21c ]